1. Field
The field is a patient support system, specifically supports for buttressing a lower shoulder and extended arms of a patient lying on their side on a bed.
2. Prior Art
A patient on a bed is often required to lie on their side (laterally) or semi-side (semi-lateral) positions. For example, the patient can be turned from side to side to prevent and heal pressure sores and ulcers that can occur on the patient's back. To effect and maintain these positions, each of the patient's wrists is commonly surrounded with a restraint such as a tie, cuff, strap, or other device that encircles each wrist and attaches to a side of the bed to restrain the patient. Although wrist restraints effectively hold the wrists and restrain the patient, they are uncomfortable and potentially harmful because they are not designed to support and buttress the many pressure points of the patient's shoulder that rests directly on the bed (lower shoulder) and their extended arms. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,414,969 to Heyman (1983), 5,604,933 to Stephens (1997), 3,297,026 to Van Pelt (1967), 3,535,718 to Murcott (1970), and 3,939,829 to Spann (1976), among others, show such wrist restraints, but fail to prevent such pressure points on the patient's shoulder.
Other unsatisfactory and potentially harmful practices to effect and maintain side and semi-side positions for patients in bed include the use of a pillow, towel, blanket, cushion, bolster, and other devices to prop up the patient's back off the bed; however, none of these are designed to support the shoulders and arms. For example, Intensive Therapeutics Inc. (www.intensivetherapeutics.com) manufactures cushions sold under the trademarks No-Slip Wegde and Bariatric No SlipWedge; these are designed to push up the person's back off the bed to hold their torso in lateral and semi-lateral positions, but these devices do not prevent pressure points on the shoulders and arms.
Other unsatisfactory and potentially harmful practices to effect and maintain side and semi-side positions for patients in bed include the use of a pillow, towel, blanket, cushion, bolster, and other devices to prop up the patient's chest, with or without a pillow, towel, blanket, cushion, bolster, and other devices to prop up the patient's back. However, none of these are designed to prevent pressure points on the patient's shoulders and arms and provide access to their nasopharyngeal cavities.
The prior art is replete with cushions having grooves or ridges that support one arm. U.S. Pat. No. 561,562 to Brownson, et al. (1896) describes a grooved armrest cushion that supports only one arm of telegraph operators, thereby preventing and alleviating paralysis of the arm. U.S. Pat. No. D321,562 to Ljungvall (1991) shows a grooved arm pillow that supports only one arm for measuring blood pressure. U.S. Pat. Nos. D382,057 (1997), D413,982 (1999), D415,281 (1999), and D426,307 (2000), all to Swedberg, et. al., show a grooved cushion hand support, a grooved arm positioning splint, a grooved arm with hand positioning splint, and a grooved arm splint with hand positioner, respectively, all being able to support only one arm. U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,235 to Gutmann (1981) describes an arm pillow with ridges on either side designed to support one arm in post-surgical convalescence patients reclining in the spine position. Although the ridges prevent the arm from rolling off the pillow in a manner similar to the operation of grooved cushions, the device is intended to support only one arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,727 to Perry (2003) describes cushions where a recessed wedge pillow and recessed arm cushions support a head, neck, and both arms. The device is designed to maintain the patient in a “sniffing angle” in the supine position on the operating table for endotracheal anesthesia.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,742 to Hall, et al. (2002) describes a plurality of stackable bolsters for purposes of elevating only one leg or one arm to a desired height.
Our own U.S. Pat. No. 7,017,215 (2006) discloses a pair of furrowed bottom and top cushions that stack to support both arms, but not the lower shoulder, of a patient lying on their side.
To review, all the devices and practices used to position a patient on their side heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) Wrist restraints are uncomfortable and potentially harmful because they do not support and protect the many pressure points of the shoulders and extended arms of a person lying on their side in bed.
(b) Use of pillows, towels, blankets, cushions, bolsters, and other devices that push up against the patient's back to hold the patient on their side do not provide support for the shoulders and arms.
(c) Use of pillows, towels, blankets, cushions, bolsters, and other devices that push up against the patient's chest to hold the patient on their side provide haphazard support for the shoulders and arms. However, these devices tend to push the patient from their side onto their back and hinder access to the arms and nasopharyngeal cavities.
(d) Use of pillows, towels, blankets, cushions, bolsters, and other devices that press against the patient's back and chest to sandwich their body and maintain the patient on their side provide haphazard support the shoulders and the arms, but hinder access to the arms and nasopharyngeal cavities.
(e) Although our own U.S. Pat. No. 7,017,215 (2006) is the only device in common use designed to support and provide access to both arms for the patient lying on their side in bed, it does not prevent pressure points on the patient's lower shoulder.